1/15 As of April 2, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order imposing a minimum 10% tariff on all imports to the United States.

But that’s just the floor. European and Asian countries face 25–40% tariffs. Chinese imports now face a flat 54% tariff.

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2/15 China responded immediately. As of this week, all American imports into China now face a 34% tariff.

This is not a trade skirmish—it’s a full-scale global trade war. And here’s what it really means for the U.S. economy, jobs, and your cost of living.

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3/15 The official goal? “Bring American manufacturing back.” The real-world effect? Most economists agree: this won’t revive U.S. industry. It’ll just make everything more expensive while delivering minimal job gains at extreme cost.

Let’s break it down.

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4/15 Let’s talk cost per job created through reshoring under these tariffs: • Auto industry: ~$850K/job • Textiles: ~$650K/job • Electronics: $1.1M/job • Semiconductors: $1.5M+/job • Agriculture: net job losses due to retaliation

Not exactly a win for working Americans.

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5/15 Why so expensive?

Because U.S. labor, compliance, and facility costs are much higher than in Asia, Eastern Europe, or Mexico. Even with tariffs, companies won’t rush back—they’ll automate more or shift to non-tariffed regions (e.g., Africa, LATAM).

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6/15 You’ll pay for it, too. Tariffs act like a tax on imports. That means: • Clothes: +15–25% • Phones, laptops: +20–30% • Cars: +$2,000–$4,000 per unit • Groceries: +8–12% (from retaliatory tariffs)

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7/15 Economists estimate the average U.S. household will pay $3,500–$4,200 more per year because of these tariffs—primarily through higher consumer prices.

That’s the equivalent of a stealth tax increase for every working family in America.

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8/15 So if the policy is: • Wildly expensive per job • Bad for consumers • Likely to cause a global recession

Why is Trump doing it?

The answer probably isn’t economics. It’s politics, ideology, and power. Here’s how.

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9/15 POLITICS: Tariffs are great for optics. Trump can say:

“I’m fighting for American workers. I’m standing up to China.”

Even if no jobs come back, the appearance of action sells—especially in swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

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10/15 IDEOLOGY: Trump and his inner circle (e.g., Peter Navarro) have long believed in economic nationalism.

To them, global trade is weakness. Dependence is dangerous. Sovereignty > efficiency.

Even if that means higher costs for Americans.

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11/15 STRATEGY: Trump may see this as a pressure tactic. • Hurt China’s exports. • Weaken the EU. • Force companies to relocate. • Push allies into renegotiating “fairer” bilateral deals.

In this view, chaos = leverage.

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12/15 PSYCHOLOGY: This is also about control.

Tariffs are one of the few economic tools the President can use unilaterally. No Congress. No Fed. No WTO oversight.

Trump gets to look strong, look decisive, and wield power in full view of the public.

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13/15 The scary part?

This policy may not be designed to succeed economically.

If it triggers inflation, unemployment, or retaliation, Trump can always blame: • “Disloyal companies” • “Globalists” • “Foreign cheaters” • “Deep state economists”

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14/15 So what’s the bottom line?

Trump’s tariff war will likely: • Cost billions in lost GDP • Raise prices across the board • Create few real jobs (and at massive taxpayer cost) • Spark global economic retaliation • Leave the average American poorer, not richer

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15/15 If this was ever about improving the economy, it failed before it began.

But if it was about optics, control, and power, then maybe it’s working exactly as intended.

We aren’t just watching a trade war. We’re watching a performance—and every American is footing the bill.

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Sources: 1. Peterson Institute for International Economics – estimates on cost per job from 2018–2023 steel and auto tariffs. 2. Brookings Institution – studies on the downstream consumer impacts of protectionism. 3. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) – manufacturing job data and multiplier effects. 4. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) – prior reports on the 2018–2020 Trump tariffs. 5. World Bank & OECD – trade elasticity and retaliation impact models (used to estimate agriculture losses). 6. CNBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times (2025 reports) – coverage of the April 2 EO and China’s retaliatory response.

This time, it was entirely self made. Like u can put a monkey in charge, that dosnet have a clue and dosent do anything and the market still wouldnt have tank like it did now.

U have to be a special kind of stupid to screw up the markets and economy that is already doing well by default, so as long as u dont touch or mess with it.

Imagine if u worked in the private sector and if u screwed up 10% as badly, causing the company to lose money, u would have been fired long ago. And yet this orange dude is still able to do what he's doing.

Sidenote: Why does the wallstreetbetsELITE logo look like that orange turd?

Do you think biggus dickus or whatever minion ChatGPT’d the export data forgot to normalize it? I mean those penguins are ripping us off, man.

Surprised by the relative magnitudes of the respective adjustments in both markets. The macro in Europe appears more favorable than in the US( less inflation, no impact of US tariffs on Euro CPI) and yet the drawdown in the US was much less than the European correction. Furthermore the US average P/E was already stretched when compared to the European one. Conclusion ( I think others will do the same analysis during the week-end): Beginning next week, I expect further correction to take place on the US equity markets while we should get some significant rebound on the European markets at some point during the week.😅🔥

What is the chance of retaliatory tariffs escalating so much that the stock market crashes another 30%, and Trump backing out from his own plan and looking like a loser in the process?

This would be a total win for foreign nations like Canada, EU, and China.

His own base can't take liquidity disappearing from the system at this rate. Another 40% crash from the stock market and we will be in a deep recession.

And how much % are we up to date since this article from 2018?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ThePumpStation/comments/1jr9mew/new_pump_eosusdt_you_cab_buy_now_at_all_time_low/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

My weekend was all loss and no joy. Please give me advice.

And I thought we were the retards.

Every single holding I own has dropped nearly 10%